“As one of the leading European online print shops, we are aware of our ecological responsibility,” says Martin Betz, Technical Operations Manager of Onlineprinters GmbH. The numerous measures in environmental and climate protection include, but are not limited to, consistent recycling of ink and toner cartridges, waste prevention and strict separation of waste, hot water and room heat recovery, FSC® and PEFC certification and various other measures in prepress, production and further processing. In cooperation with the climate protection specialist ClimatePartner, the online print shop www.onlineprinters.com has further extended its commitment to environmental protection by offering “climate neutral printing – support of carbon offset projects.”

Climate neutral printing orders – easy and transparent“Based on our operating data, we have accounted the emissions generated in the printing process and thus calculated the carbon footprint of Onlineprinters,” Martin Betz explains. For the customer, the emissions incurred with every single printing order are automatically and individually accounted and shown in the online shop. “The customer can decide about the climate impact of his printing order himself,” says Betz. “At the touch of a button,” he can offset the accounted emissions by the ClimatePartner process certified by TÜV Austria by means of internationally recognised climate offset projects. “The extra costs for the offsetting come to only about 0.9 percent of the production costs, which demonstrates the high standard of Onlineprinters corporate environmental protection,” says Betz.

Customer certificate and logo certify climate neutral printingClimate neutral printing is an added value that can be disclosed to the customers of the online print shop in the form of individual certificates. For maximum transparency, an individual ID number and a QR code are generated with every climate neutral printing order. All information regarding the relevant carbon offsetting is available in an online statement comprehensible to anyone. The customer can download his certificate confirming the offsetting of greenhouse gases through additional climate protection measures. In addition, the print ID logo “ClimatePartner – climate neutral” is available for download from a logo generator and can be integrated into the printing data. Convenient: colour, language and type of file can be generated individually. “This is an important service for our business customers who wish to furnish evidence within the framework of their compliance guidelines that they use climate neutral print products,” says Betz.

Climate neutrality as a contribution to climate protectionThe mechanism of carbon offsetting applies to carbon emissions that cannot be avoided or reduced in the production process: according to the principle of climate neutrality, emissions that are generated in one place can be offset in another location of the planet with the support of recognised carbon offset projects that effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For offsetting the carbon emissions generated in the respective printing order, the customer of the online print shop www.onlineprinters.com can presently select either a hydropower project in Indonesia, a forest protection project in Mozambique or a wind energy project in Turkey. “We see climate and environmental protection as a challenge and a chance to seek new economical paths towards finding ecologically sustainable developments, and to consistently implement them. With ClimatePartner, we have found the right partner to expand our commitment and to enable our customers to buy climate neutral products,” explains Martin Betz, Technical Operations Manager of Onlineprinters GmbH. Moritz Lehmkuhl, Managing Director of ClimatePartner, adds: “We are currently experiencing a clearly increasing demand for climate neutral products. To this end, climate protection must be made possible with minimum extra costs and effort in daily business. The German Onlineprinters GmbH has met these requirements in an exemplary manner.”